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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24578833">Habits</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesummermagician/pseuds/thesummermagician'>thesummermagician</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Lila Redemption, Lila Rossi Redemption, and lila's deeper (ish) look at friendship, class scene, idk how to tag this, just casual conversation between classmates</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:01:20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,518</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24578833</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesummermagician/pseuds/thesummermagician</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sure knowing a celebrity is incredible and worth gawking over...but at some point the bragging has got to stop; a short Lila redemption-ish one shot.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>50</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Habits</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Of course, after Prince Ali and I finished working on our program, we had dinner at <em> La Pergola </em>, the best restaurant in all of Italy!”</p><p>“Mhm, that’s nice, dear,” Rose murmured, her attention focused entirely on the history textbook before her. </p><p>Lila frowned. For all that these students have been hanging onto her stories at first, their enthusiasm had been waning lately. The significant lack of attention made her bristle. She had a plan for any instance of confrontation to her stories but what do you do when no one’s interested in the story? There’s little chance that she could spin her response in a way that didn’t put people off. Lunch time was <em>always</em> a good time for them to coo and fawn over her.   </p><p>“...Right.” Lila’s smile wavered for a second. “And then you know the owner of the restaurant was so honored to have us there, he practically begged us for pictures to put on the wall and–”</p><p>“Can you brag somewhere else, I’m trying to eat here.” Alix interrupted. Lila reared back, the feelings of anger quickly overtaking her hurt in a way that’s always been familiar. </p><p>She quickly put on a hurt face. “I-I’m sorry, I just thought you guys wanted to hear these stories?” </p><p>Alix sighed and put down her fork. “Look, yeah, in the beginning we did. It’s not like we’re not happy for you that you have such a cool life. But at some point – which we’re already past, if that wasn’t clear – it starts to get old.”</p><p>Lila frowned as Rose sheepishly nodded in agreement. “I’m not understanding.” </p><p>“You’re a cool girl! I mean, you <em> must </em> be for you to have this crazy awesome life! But come on, a little casual conversation hurt no one, especially between friends.” </p><p>“I see.” Lila’s lips thinned, still processing this information. Fine. Whatever. This was no big deal, she would just have to twist her stories a bit more. She hadn’t promised anything to anyone in a while but that always managed to raise enthusiasm so maybe she could–</p><p>“What’s your favorite show?” Alix asked, going back to eating her food. </p><p>Lila almost rolled her eyes. What an easy question. She opened her mouth, ready to give an <em> honest </em> answer when she blanked. “It’s, uh…” </p><p>Huh.</p><p>Most of her time was usually spent seething, avoiding people when a lie required her presence somewhere else, crafting stories together, preparing arguments for instances of conflict, and–</p><p><em> ...Wow </em>. </p><p>When was the last time she’d actually enjoyed something? </p><p>“...I haven’t seen anything in a while,” Lila finished lamely. She inwardly cringed. This wasn’t going to get attention, no one’s gonna adore her every word for her lack of media consumption. </p><p>Alix raised her eyebrows at that. “Do you not watch shows or…?”</p><p>“I...just haven’t had the time. Maybe I will this weekend.”</p><p>That got the attention she was looking for. Rose looked up from and squealed while Alix grinned. “Oh, dude, you have to check out this series, it’s so fucking good! It’s on Netflix, it’s called <em> Big Mouth </em>, have you heard of it?” </p><p>Lila scrunched her nose. “No, but–”</p><p>“That show’s too vulgar!” Rose protested, mirroring Lila’s expression. She turned to beam at Lila. “You should watch <em> She-Ra </em> , it’s an animated show and it’s so good! It has princesses and unicorns and <em> magic </em> and–” </p><p>“I mean–” </p><p>“Hey, what’s going on?” Juleka asked, taking a seat next to Rose. </p><p>Alix motioned her hand towards Lila. “Rossi hasn’t seen a TV show in a while and we’re giving her suggestions.” </p><p>Juleka lit up in a way that was rare for her. “You should watch <em> American Horror Story </em>.”  </p><p>“Juleka!” </p><p>“What? Okay, yeah, it’s creepy but maybe Lila would like creepy.” </p><p>Lila didn’t know how to respond to that. </p><p>Alix snapped her fingers as if she just had a thought. “You know who would be good at suggestions? Cesaire. She’s great at giving you a show or movie to watch that you’re sure to like.” </p><p>Rose and Juleka nodded in agreement while Lila squirmed in her seat, dumbfounded at the turn of events. </p><p>This was...vague to her. Casual conversation like this between friends wasn’t entirely foreign to her, after all that’s how little kids made friends all the time. But it’d been a while since she’d actually done the whole “making friends” thing that didn’t involve making promises of meetings with people she’d never met before.  </p><p>She didn’t remember the last time she’d gushed over something as trivial as a <em> TV show </em>. </p><p>Nonetheless, she allowed herself to be pulled from her seat and into the classroom. </p><p>“Alya!” Rose pulled Lila by the arm to the second row.  </p><p>The girl herself looked up from her textbook and grinned. “That’s my name, don’t wear it out. What’s up?” </p><p>Marinette sat next to her, throwing a smile towards the incoming group and then promptly going back to her sketchbook as soon as she saw Lila. </p><p>Lila didn’t care; she had more important things to worry about. Like this strange new development. </p><p>“Lila’s in desperate need of some show recommendation,” Alix supplied, taking a seat at her own desk. “You’re the best at those so do your thing.” </p><p>Alya straightened, immediately pulling out her phone and opening up the Netflix app. “Yes! Finally! I’ve been thinking about some things you’d like and–”</p><p>Lila interrupted her. “Wait, you...have?” </p><p>“Of course!” Alya exclaimed, eyes not leaving her phone. “I do it for all my friends. It’s hard to watch something and not think <em> hey, I know who would love this </em>!” </p><p>
  <em> Strange. </em>
</p><p>Well, maybe not entirely so. This wasn’t weird.This is just what they did with each other.</p><p>Not with her. </p><p>It was more sad than strange, anyways. All this effort for her and all she offered in return were sweet nothings. Really, all she should feel right now is pity. Satisfaction. God, anything but the validation trying to claw its way back up to the surface.   </p><p>Lila plastered a smile on her face and tuned back into the conversation.</p><p>“Okay, so I think you’d like the new <em> Carmen Sandiego </em> reboot, it’s pretty good so far. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the original but it’s about this thief who steals for good reasons and it’s <em> awesome </em> .” Alya looked up to see if Lila was interested only to see her listening intently to what she was saying. Going back to her list, she continued: “ <em> Black Mirror </em> is another one I’d think you’d really enjoy <em> but </em> the episodes aren’t connected so if you don’t like the first episode, you can skip around and I give you a <em> Cesaire-guarantee </em> that you’ll love at least one of them. My personal top three are: White Bear, Shut Up and Dance, and Hated in the Nation.”</p><p>“Interesting titles,” Lila murmured. </p><p>“They’re total mind fucks,” Alix supplied from the back. “Had me questioning everything for <em> days </em>, so I highly recommend.”</p><p>Alya nodded in agreement. “I think you’d like <em> The Good Place </em>. Oh! You should also watch–”</p><p>And so went the rest of their lunch period, everyone giving their recommendations on things Lila should watch and commenting on the shows already said. At some point they’d started recommending movies as well. </p><p>Nino had a field day when Lila offhandedly mentioned being outdated with music. He practically gave her an essay of things she should listen to when she had the time.  </p><p>Next thing she knew, Lila was sitting at her desk at home, staring dumbfounded at the Netflix opening screen. Having gotten home, she immediately got to work on her homework to get it out of the way before starting the list.</p><p>And it was a huge list. They might as well have told her to watch every single thing on there. </p><p>Still. It was a nice sentiment. </p><p>She chewed her lip, looking around the paper and trying to recall some of their descriptions. Was this a waste of her time? Should she even be doing this? </p><p>Of course she didn’t have to; she could always look up the episodes and plotlines on Wikipedia and fall back on that if she got questioned on anything. </p><p>A pang of guilt shot through her as she thought back to how excited her classmates were making this list. Lila shook her head in disgust at the foreign feeling. Why <em> should </em> she feel guilty? She didn’t owe anything to them. </p><p>Her mother’s job didn’t allow her to stay in one place for too long; it didn’t take long for a young Lila to realize that making genuine friendships was pointless. In the end, it didn’t matter who loved her or who hated her. They forgot her and she forgot them.  </p><p>Still, France was looking to be a longer stay than most. Maybe that’s why she felt guilty. </p><p>Lila scoffed and closed her laptop. Whatever. She didn’t have to do this; she had better things to do. Taking out her personal black book, she settled back and went over her ideas for ultimate adoration.   </p><p>It was just a fluke when she stayed up all night to finish the third season of <em> American Horror Story. </em></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I’m not a Lila stan in the slightest but I wanted to write this because I’ve been thinking about how sOmeone said that they thought Chloe was redeemable but it turned out she wasn’t and I’d just like to say that 1) she and Lila are kids and 2) i think that all kids are redeemable, at least way more than a grown ass man in a butterfly costume  </p><p>It’ll always be Marinette &gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; Lila forever for me but I heavily disagree with making Lila such an unlikable/irredeemable antagonist when the grown ass man terrorizing the city has more sympathetic moments than she (a child) does</p><p>plus I thought it'd be interesting to write this bc most (all) ppl I know wouldn't be able to stand someone bragging every time they open their mouth</p></blockquote></div></div>
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